Great analogy Steve! I was thinking about that last night in so much as how similar the trade situations are. Vatanen had a great offensive upside but was too small to play defense in the west. He got pushed around a lot in the defensive end but he has thrived in the less physical (for the most part) east. Petterssen was the same type of player, without the offensive upside. Marcus was a bigl guy but he didn't play big. When Hampus went out he was physically man-handled by bigger forwards. He'll probably do much better in the east, too. Sprong is EXACTLY the type of player the Ducks need. Someone who is always looking to shoot no matter where he is. I think too many of the younger forwards are trying to be too much like Getzlaf and pass the puck instead of shooting it. (Rackell, Silfverberg) That's why Kase has been so eye-opening. He's shooting the puck.

We were at the game last night and saw the Sprong goal. It's one of those goals you marvel at. All of us were saying it really was something to see. We're not thinking he's gonna be an immediate scoring machine, but the untapped potential was there for us to see.

yea ..the Eaves deal cost us shea theodore..reminds me of the last contract of sheldon souray or even simon despres . they just collected checks the last couple years of contract.- rubberduckies

How did it cost us Theodore? Shea was lost because we wanted to keep Vatanen (4th Dman) and Silfvy (5th forward) as part of the expansion. I still think that deal was OK. Yes Theodore is a stud, but Silfvy has some pretty serious value right now and it got rid of Stoner's 4m contract.

How did it cost us Theodore? Shea was lost because we wanted to keep Vatanen (4th Dman) and Silfvy (5th forward) as part of the expansion. I still think that deal was OK. Yes Theodore is a stud, but Silfvy has some pretty serious value right now and it got rid of Stoner's 4m contract.- hdd23